Items tagged with instant messaging

It seemed like a crazy when a little over years ago Facebook announced it was purchasing WhatsApp for $19 billion. But the reason Facebook was wiling to pony up such an obscene sum is partly because of how wildly popular WhatsApp was at the time. It's only grown since then, and according to its developers WhatsApp users make over 100 million calls per day. "Today, more than 100 million voice calls are made every day on WhatsApp - that's over 1,100 calls a second! We're humbled that so many people have found this feature useful, and we're committed to making it even better in the months to come,"...Read more...

Do you want to know why Facebook will avoid the same fate as MySpace? It's because Mark Zuckerberg and company have an uncanny ability to recognize big things in the making. This is underscored today by WhatsApp CEO and co-founder Jan Koum announcing on Facebook (where else?) that his instant messaging app now boasts 900 million users.That's up from around 450 million users when Facebook acquired the service last year for a whopping $19 billion, including $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares, and another $3 billion in restricted stock units doled out to WhatsApp's staff members.It...Read more...

You can't win them all, and in the ultra competitive mobile app segment, Samsung has decided its ChatON application doesn't have what it takes to win out against a plethora of more popular programs. As such, Samsung is turning off its ChatON service for good in all markets in the first quarter of 2015 so that it can instead focus on "health, mobile commerce, and other platforms."The shutoff date has been set for February 1, 2015, so if you're a fan of ChatON, you have until then to get your fix, save for U.S. users -- Samsung will shutter the service domestically by the end of March, thus ending...Read more...

A million dollars isn't cool, do you know what's cool? A billion dollars. Or so we were told by Justin Timberlake's portrayal of Sean Parker in the movie The Social Network, a docu-drama about Facebook. Ironically enough, Facebook reportedly offered $1 billion to acquire Snapchat, and then $3 billion after its initial bid was rebuked. It was pretty gutsy of Snapchat to turn down both offers without having any real revenue stream to speak of, along with a $4 billion offer from Google, though the lack of revenue is about to change with the introduction of ads. Beginning this weekend, Snapchat will...Read more...

After Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion back in February of this year, the popular messaging service has gone on to surpass 600 million monthly active users, company founder and Chief Executive Officer Jan Koum announced in a Twitter post today. At the time of acquisition, WhatsApp was nearing half a billion active users. By April, WhatsApp had crossed over the 500 million mark along with a new daily record of 64 billion messages handed in 24 hours, 20 billion of which were sent (inbound) and 44 billion received (outbound) by users. What that boils down to is an additional 100 million...Read more...

Facebook isn't afraid to make a splash, hence the decision back in February of this year to scoop up WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock options. It remains Facebook's largest transaction to date, though it could prove a brilliant move in the long run, especially as WhatsApp keeps attracting more users. As of right now, WhatsApp is home to 500 million active users. "Thanks to all of you, half a billion people around the world are now regular, active WhatsApp users. In the last few months, we've grown fastest in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, and our users are also sharing...Read more...

WhatsApp just refuses to work with pedestrian numbers. Take for example its sale price to Facebook, which is snatching up the instant messaging service for $19 billion. That's a pretty big number, though not as high as the new record the service set in daily messages sent and received, which totaled 64 billion messages combined. "New daily record: 20 billion messages (inbound) and 44 billion messages received (outbound) by our users equals 64 billion messages handled in just 24 hours," WhatsApp announced in a Twitter post. Image Source: Flickr (Sam Azgor) To be clear, WhatsApp had to play with...Read more...

Facebook surprised a lot of people when Mark Zuckerberg announced his social network was acquiring WhatsApp, an instant messaging application for smartphones, for $19 billion, representing the company's biggest acquisition to date. When asked about the valuation, BlackBerry's CEO, John Chen, said he would take $19 billion for his company's messaging service in a heartbeat. "I work for the shareholder. Standard answer. If somebody comes to me with $19 billion, I would definitely sell it. I would recommend to the board to take it," Chen told CNBC. Chen also said he doesn't view BlackBerry Messenger...Read more...

Security researchers at Gibson Security handed Snapchat what amounts to a lump of a coal on Christmas morning by exposing a security flaw that, when exploited, would grant hackers access to users' phone numbers without their permission. It's essentially a how-to guide for hackers with detailed instructions, and the reason Gibson Security made the information public is because the company claims Snapchat has known about the flaw for several months and has done nothing about it. Gibson Security says it first made Snapchat aware of the issue in August, nothing that none of the exploits revealed have...Read more...

Budding entrepreneurs take note, word of mouth advertising still plays a significant role in growth, provided you build solid product or offer a stellar service. Just have a look at WhatsApp, a cross-platform instant messaging service that allows users to send free texts, videos, photos, and audio messages to one another with ZERO ads to distract from the experience. The caveat is that it costs $0.99 per year (after a 1-year free trial), but that nominal charge hasn't stopped WhatsApp from becoming the largest cross-platform messaging service around. WhatsApp has seen a sudden surge of interest...Read more...

Want to get rich relatively quick? Develop an app around a simple concept and wait for the ridiculous valuations to come rolling in, and then sell to the highest bidder. It's a formula that worked for Instagram, a photo (and now video, too) sharing app that Facebook purchased for $1 billion, and it appears Snapchat is headed in the same direction. Word all over the web is that Snapchat raised $60 million during its latest round of funding, and did so at an $800 million pre-money valuation. Like Instagram, Snapchat is well on its way to becoming a billion dollar company, which is a little mind boggling...Read more...

Microsoft's theme for the year might as well be "Out with the old and in with the new." That philosophy accurately describes the launch of Windows 8, which dispenses with the old way of doing things (like with a dedicated Start menu, for example) in favor of a touch-friendly future, and it also applies to Microsoft's instant messaging strategy. According to reports, Microsoft is taking Windows Live Messenger out of the instant messaging game and inserting Skype into the starting lineup. "Several sources" tell The Verge that Windows Live Messenger will ultimately end up integrated into Skype within...Read more...

If you're having trouble using Google Talk, don't waste time messing around with your network and/or router settings. Chances are the problem has nothing to do with you, Joe User, with the culprit being something on Google's end. The sultan of search began investigating "reports of an issue with Google Talk" early this morning, and within 10 minutes, determined that whatever it is that's causing the problem is affecting the majority of Google Talk users. Google began investigating the issue at 6:40AM. At 6:50AM, Google said it was "seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behavior" and promised...Read more...

It's never pretty watching two nerds duke it out, and as is often the case, a would-be battle turns into a lot of awkward posturing. That's currently what's going on between Fring, who last week released an updated iPhone app allowing iPhone 4 owners to make 2-way video calling over Wi-Fi or 3G, and Skype, who may rank as Fring's least biggest fan. So what's the big deal? According to Fring, Skype is playing dirty by refusing to allow connections with Fring, thus ending 4 years of Skype interconnectivity. "We are disappointed that Skype, who once championed the cause of openness, is now attempting...Read more...